Journal article
Hope Springs Eternal: Reforming Inheritance Law in Islamic Societies
Hawwa (Leiden), Vol.19(2), pp.159-176
06/01/2021
DOI: 10.1163/15692086-12341352
Abstract
Soon after the Lajnat al-Hurriyat al-Fardiyya wa-l-Musawat ("Committee on Individual Rights and Equality") submitted its report in June 2018 to the president of Tunisia, Beji Caid Essebsi, the latter ordered the legislature to amend the 1956 family law to achieve equality between men and women in inheritance and property rights. Although the authors of the report had written forcefully about how Islamic texts (the Quran and sunna) are compatible with modern law, some of their recommendations suggested a broad inclination to reform the law outside religious tradition and as part of the exigencies of the civil state. These events and ideas brought to the fore questions such as whether classical Islamic law is reformable or obsolete. This paper aims to show that interpretations of Islamic texts that result in radically different inheritance laws have existed since at least the third Islamic century. Inequality has persisted always for political and institutional reasons, not substantive ones.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Hope Springs Eternal: Reforming Inheritance Law in Islamic Societies
- Creators
- Ahmed Souaiaia - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Hawwa (Leiden), Vol.19(2), pp.159-176
- DOI
- 10.1163/15692086-12341352
- ISSN
- 1569-2078
- eISSN
- 1569-2086
- Publisher
- Brill
- Number of pages
- 18
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/01/2021
- Academic Unit
- International Programs; Religious Studies; Law Faculty
- Record Identifier
- 9984397942202771
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